14 DAY TRIAL // According to local police reports, around twenty websites belonging to Cypriot companies were defaced after APOEL Nicosia fans attacked a Turkish basketball team following a recent match.
The violent incidents transpired on December 21 following the FIBA Eurochallenge basketball game between APOEL Nicosia (Republic of Cyprus) and Pinar Karasiyaka (Turkey) held at the Tassos Papadopoulos Eleftheria Athletic Centre.
APOEL won the match, but after the referee's final whistle, 500 Cypriot fans started throwing coins and lighters at the Turkish team.
A group of people went even further and forced their way onto the playing field, some even reportedly holding knifes.
Pinar Karasiyaka players and staff were immediately escorted to the locker room while police forces clashed with the angry fans.
The violence later moved outside the arena as the visiting team was trying to leave. APOEL fans threw rocks at its bus and police had to resort to tear gas in order to keep them away.
The incident caused political unrest and official telephone lines rang close to midnight between Ankara, Brussels, Nicosia and Athens.
Officials from Turkey tried to secure safe passage for the team to the north of the island, which is under Turkish occupation, but the Greek Cypriot government opposed this solution.
The team eventually spent the night at their hotel under tight police surveillance and was escorted to the Larnaca international airport the next day.
A Cyprus police spokesperson confirmed that the cyber-crimes division observed around twenty website compromises that bore the hallmark of Turkish hackers.
The home pages of the affected sites displayed images of the Turkish crescent moon, as well as the emblem of the Pinar Karsiyaka basketball team. Text reading "No Terrorism in Sport" also accompanied some of the defacements.
Website defacements have historically been closely associated with hacktivism. We recently reported about a clash between Indian and Pakistani hackers which resulted in hundreds of websites being hijacked in both countries.